Posts Tagged "Meeting Activities"

Trick or Treat Yarn Wreath

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This Trick or Treat Yarn Wreath is a super easy project for younger girls and just in time for Halloween.  The colors of yarn chosen can easily be changed to fit any holiday or theme, so feel free to adapt the colors!

Materials Needed:

• Black yarn
• Orange yarn
• Wire coat hanger
• Pliers
• 4″ wide cardboard
• Scissors
• 1½” wide ribbon
• Purchased Halloween decorations, assorted
• Fine wire
• Hot glue gun
• Hot glue sticks

Directions:

1. With pliers, shape hanger into circle, then bend hook for the hanging loop.
2. Wind yarn 20 times around the cardboard.  Slip these strands off the cardboard.  With a separate 8″ strand of yarn, tie strands together at center (see Figure 1); do not cut the yarn loops.
3. Using the ends of the 8″ strand, tie the bundle to the ring, positioning the bundle perpendicular to the wire (see Figure 2).  If necessary, trim off the ends of the 8″ strand.
4. Make another bundle and tie to the ring adjacent to the previous bundle.  Continue to make bundles and tie them to the wire in the same way, positioning each bundle against the previous bundle and working around the ring until the entire wire circle is filled.
5. Make a bow from the ribbon.  Wind yarn or fine wire through an area that can be hidden and tie or twist around wire ring.  With hot glue, attach smaller decorations.

Safety Tips!

1. Always supervise young girls when using the hot glue gun.

Here are the figures I referred to above:

Sand Art Magnets

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Sand Art Magnets are a great project for Daisies, Brownies, and even Junior Girl Scouts, but the project can take up to an hour, so if your meetings are only half an hour long, you might want to do the painting during one meeting and the sand embellishing during the next.  This is a messy project with the sand, so be sure to have smocks or old adult shirts ready to minimize the chance of stains on the girls’ clothes.  You will also want to have old newspapers down on the tables to make clean up of the excess sand easier.

This is an easy project to theme.  Standard unfinished wooden shapes can be bought in multi-packs but you can also go to craft stores to get larger unique shapes one at a time, such as horseshoes, flowers, animals, etc.   For example, if the girls are in the process of learning about insects for a badge, you can easily get bees or ladybug shaped wood piece to paint.  Using a theme will also help limit how much paint and sand you buy to keep to the colors of the theme and project – for instance you don’t need purple if all the girls are making bees or ladybugs.

Materials Needed:

• Unfinished wood shapes
• Acrylic paint
• Craft sand
• Craft magnets
• Foam brush
• Paint brush
• All-Purpose glue

Directions:

1. Use the foam brush to paint the shapes in the desired colors.  Let the paint dry.
2. Use the paint brushes to paint lines of glue onto the painted shapes where you want the sand to adhere to.
3. Sprinkle the sand onto the wet glue and shake the excess sand off onto a newspaper or scrap paper to catch the sand.
4. Repeat steps 2 & 3 for each color sand you use.  It works best to use one color of sand at a time to avoid mixing the sands together.  Start with the darkest and end with the lightest.
5. Once the glue is completely dry, attach magnets to the back of each and let dry before using.  You can glue individual craft magnets onto the wood pieces or use magnetic strips with adhesive backing.  Usually the strips come in a roll that can be cut into pieces the right size.

Safety Tips!

1. Make sure to use glue that is kid-safe.  Not only does it work the best, but you don’t want to use a toxic glue.
2. For added stability in the magnets, an adult can use a hot glue gun to attach the magnets.
3. Look at the packaging for the acrylic paint and make sure you’re using a non-toxic, kid friendly paint.  If you cannot find kid-friendly acrylic paint, ask someone at your local craft store for a recommendation on a non-toxic paint that will work for this project.

Consider how thick the wood pieces are before deciding what kind of magnet to use.  You want to make sure that the magnet won’t fail when stuck to a refrigerator – nothing is worse than a girl bringing home her wonderful creation only to put it on the fridge and have it fall to the floor and break 🙁

Foam Water Bottle Holder

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With all the outdoor activities that girl scouts do, it’s important to bring along a lot of water to stay hydrated.  This is a great craft for a meeting before a camping or hiking trip.  Remember to get a variety of foam stickers so the girls’ creativity can run wild with different designs to fit their personalities.  The alphabet stickers are important for personalization, but if the girls would rather just use stickers to personalize the bottle holders, you can always write their names on the bottom of the can hug with a permanent marker.

There’s not much mess involved with this project – just the paper backings from the stickers that need to be cleaned up at the end of the meeting.

Materials Needed:

• Scissors
• Hole punch
• Ruler
• Ribbon
• Foam can hug, tall
• Foam stickers, alphabet

Directions:

1. Cut three 24″ pieces of ribbon.  Braid the ribbons together to create the handle.
2. On opposite sides of the can hug, punch 2 holes for attaching the handle.
3. Thread the braided ribbon through the holes and secure with a knot.
4. Remove the paper backing from the foam stickers to decorate the bottle holder as desired.

Safety Tips!

1. Always observe the children when using scissors.

Try looking at craft stores for the pre-made can hug.  If you cannot find one, use foam sheets and glue to make one.  Use a standard 16 oz. water bottle to judge the correct size.

Flubber

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This is a super simple craft that younger girls can have a blast with.  It can get messy, so be sure to keep craft clothes or smocks on hand.  Old adult button down long sleeve shirts work well to protect little girls clothes from the mess.

Materials Needed:

• 2 c. White glue
• Food Coloring
• 2 tsp. Borax
• 1 c. Hot Water

Directions:

1. Mix all ingredients together, adding the food coloring slowly to make desired shade.
2. Pour off excess water.

Safety Tips!

1. An adult should add the Borax to the mixture to limit the girls’ exposure to the detergent.

A flubber kind of putty will be made from this that the girls can bounce and shape liberally.  It is not ideal for sculpting as it won’t dry out and preserve the shapes.  Be sure to have plastic bags on hand to send the flubber home in.  This can be a fun activity to pair with a viewing of either Flubber or The Absent-Minded Professor on a rainy meeting night.

Quick Shopping for This Project

• Boraxo Powdered Hand Soap
• Elmer’s Washable School Glue – 4oz

Colored Carnations

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This is a perfect craft around any holiday or any time of year.  The colors you choose to transform the carnations into can be themed to match holidays, events, ceremonies, or seasons.  Darker colors will work best to color the carnations, but any color is worth a try!  It’s simple and creative.  It’s also a great science experiment for younger girls.   This craft can be combined with other crafts, like making a plastic bottle vase or recycled glass vase.

Materials Needed:

• White carnations
• Liquid food coloring
• Flower vases
• Water

Directions:

1. Fill vase ¼ of water.
2. Add about 15 drops of food coloring to the water in the vase (more if the vase is large and the shade looks too light).
3. Trim about 1″ off of the stems at the bottom at an angular cut.
4. Put a flower in the vase and let it sit for 24 hours.

Safety Tips!

1. Always have an adult cut the flower stems.
2. Use non-toxic food coloring.

The best way to go about this, since it does take about 24 hours for the flowers to change color, is to set up the experiment during the meeting and have the girls take them home.  Tell them to watch them and ask parents to take photos of the flowers the next day.  At the following meeting, the girls can bring their flowers back if they’re still alive or bring in the photos to share their results.

This is a great craft when working on science badges or as a prelude to a scientific outing.  The process of the water moving up the stem into the petals is known as cohesion. The process gets its name because water is considered a very cohesive or sticky substance, which means that water pulled up through the stem takes on a magnetic-like effect, pulling the water up. The tubes in the plant (also known as capillaries) are very small and thin.